Using a national sample of over 17,000 high school seniors, we examined the effect of education of parents, employment status of mother, number of parents in household, religiosity, religious affiliation, gender, and race on alcohol and marijuana use. Contrary to some previous research, neither parental education nor employment status of mother was related to use of alcohol or marijuana. Adolescents who lived with both parents were less likely than adolescents in single-parent homes to use marijuana, although the differences were relatively small. Number of parents in household was not related to adolescent alcohol use. Level of religiosity had a significant association with alcohol and marijuana use among all religious denominations, although the magnitude of the relationship varied by denomination. Religious denomination, gender, and race were also related to drug use.

Abstract

BackgroundThis study examines socioeconomic inequality in children’s health and factors that moderate this inequality. Socioeconomic measures include household wealth, maternal education and urban/rural area of residence. Moderating factors include reproductive behavior, access to health care, time, economic development, health expenditures and foreign aid.MethodsData are taken from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2003 and 2012 in 26 African countries.ResultsBirth spacing, skilled birth attendants, economic development and greater per capita health expenditures benefit the children of disadvantaged mothers, but the wealthy benefit more from the services of a skilled birth attendant and from higher per capita expenditure on health.ConclusionSome health behavior and policy changeswould reduce social inequality, but the wealthy benefit more than the poor from provision of health services.

Using the ten percent sample of the 1996 South African census, we examine the rates of intergroup marriage and marriage between linguistic groups in South Africa. Since whites are a small number in South Africa but historically have held most of the power, the analysis provides an interesting context to test the generalizability of theories about inter-racial marriage. We test exchange theory by examining the effects of education on the patterns of intergroup marriage. We do this while controlling for relative group size. Finally, we examine the socioeconomic status of children of mixed marriages to see possible implications of mixed marriages for future generations. Although education is only weakly related to rates of inter-group marriage, it appears to facilitate outmarriage for low-status groups. More minority females than males marry out of their own group, a pattern of intermarriage quite different from that of the United States. This pattern may reflect local norms, or the different racial composition of the two countries. Children of mixed-white marriages appear to do much better economically than children of mixed-black marriages.

Family predictors of tobacco and alcohol use were studied in random samples of school-going Black, Coloured, and White adolescents (total N=1,800) in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area. The subjects ranged in age from 14 to 17 years, with a mean age of 15.95 years. Logistic regression analysis of the data showed invariance across the three racial groups in terms of the specific family variables that were predictive, as well as their direction and magnitude of association with substance use. Essentially, higher rates of substance use for all three groups were predicted by parental behavioural control, parental monitoring/knowledge and limit setting, marital relations and family stress. The findings extend the work on South African adolescent substance use by providing a view into the proximal (family) socialising forces that are related to substance use. The findings also extend the broader work on identifying specialised effects of dimensions of socialization on adolescent functioning. The discussion section includes commentary on the cultural invariance found when measuring socialising forces at this level of generality.